June 21th, 2000, Wednesday Evening

"Exercising our Senses"
(Special Guest Speaker: Brother Hugh Taylor)
The three spiritual senses not mentioned with the original five

OPENING: Hebrews 5:12-14, KJV

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• Hebrews 5:12-14: The Lord uses milk and meat as the two metaphors for the learning level of the Word of God.
  
  
• Hebrews 5:14: To be worthy of the "strong meat," you must be exercises in the spiritual senses.
  
  
• Luke 17:11-19: Let's consider a true story example of these senses. During Jesus' time, He came across ten (10) lepers. They recognized Jesus as "master" and asked for mercy.
  
  
  • Luke 17:11-14: These ten (10) persons had commonalities. They were lepers and unclean. Leprosy symbolizes sin.
    
    
    • Leviticus 13:45-46: Describes the life of a leper. It's not a nice way to live. The social reputation you gain would be terrible and horrifying. (By the way, in verse 45, "rent" means "torn.")
    
    
  • Luke 17:13: These lepers knew Jesus could cure them. Have you ever done what the lepers did in verse 13? God's mercy never lets up. Just ours.
    
    
  • Luke 17:14: When Jesus told these lepers to go, they went.
    
    
  • Luke 17:15: However, while nine (9) of the ten (10) went, one turned back and was distinguished from the rest.
    
    
    • The nine settled for the cleansing from God. They had their ticket punched and they were on their way to sail their way into life. They got what they wanted from God without considering what God wanted in return.
      
      
    • But this one qualifies for strong meat because he exercised his senses by returning to Jesus--and he was a Samaritan!
      
      
    • Ephesians 2:12: The key here is all of us are like one of those lepers. We're either one of the nine (9) or the one who thanked God. We're either cleansed or uncleansed. And if we're cleansed, are we like one of the nine (9) or the one?
      
      
    • We must exercise our senses like that one Samaritan leper did.
      
      
      • The simple example of that is the growth of a baby. First the baby is crawling, then walking, then running.
  
  
• As Gentiles, we must exercise our spiritual senses like the one Samaritan leper did. We have three spiritual sense we exercise.
  
  
  • #1: OUR SENSE OF GRATITUDE
    
    
    • We must always remember where we were heading before Jesus Christ came into this world
      
      
      • 1 Corinthians 15:57
      • 2 Corinthians 9:15
      • John 3:16
      
      
    • Ephesians 5:20: Who needs human intercession for God when you have the hotline direct to the Throneroom of God? However, others praying on your behalf is good.
      
      
    • How can you do any less than 100% for God in all you do? We should wake up in the morning and first thing thank God for getting us through another night.
    
    
  • #2: OUR SENSE OF GLORIFYING GOD
    
    
    • One of the first things we teach other children is the concept of "please" and "thank you."
      
      
    • Luke 17:15: Glorifying God as a result of gratitude is to praise Him, give honor to His name, and to make God look good.
      
      
    • We must love God and honor and follow Him to "glorify" Him.
      
      
    • 1 Corinthians 6:20: God paid a price for you. Don't you think you owe Him something in return?
      
      
    • 1 Corinthians 10:31: As reiterated many times, do not take certain inferences literally. This verse doesn't mean to super-size your #1 combo to glorify God. "Eat" means physical self-control. "Drink" means the amount of opportunity to glorify God.
      
      
      • The absense of alcohol is distinctive of an independent baptist.
      
      
    • REMEMBER: If you want to glorify God with all your heart, believe the Word of God and those charged with giving the Word. This is almost "Mission Impossible" but not impossible because God doesn't task us with more than we can handle.
      
      
    • On rare occasions, the pastor will trip up his sentence or put his foot-in-mouth. If so, don't criticize him. You try being the pastor--having the same pressure, same responsibility, and have every word of your scrutinized.
      
      
    • Sure we'll all fail at times--Paul did!
      
      
    • Doing this is more important than anything you do in this life.
    
    
  • #3: OUR SENSE OF GOING FOR GOD
    
    
    • Luke 17:19: "Go thy way" doesn't mean "go have fun, now!" It means "go the way in which God has directed your path--" and do not take that literally.
      
      
    • Acts 9:10-15: Upon reading the final verse, you'll find God directed Ananias to "go thy way."
      
      
    • Acts 9:17: What Ananias was tasked to do in verses 10-15, above, had dangers including being thrown in jail. Would do want the task Ananias had--directed by God?
      
      
    • What if Ananias didn't "go thy way?"
      
      
      • Think of it, rather, as what if your pastor didn't "go thy way" to the church you attend now? How many souls would have been not saved if your pastor didn't follow God's directive?
      
      
    • It's not God but disobedient men who build monasteries.
      
      
    • The purpose of a church is not to sit every Sunday and get dose of God's Word. It's a place to edify, equip, and exercise our "sense of going." Now think of how serious your pastor's job is!
      
      
      • God wants us to exercise our sense of going.
        
        
        • Hebrews 5: We need to discern our sense of good and evil
          
          
        • Should we just eat our strong meat every Sunday morning or take some of it to a foreign field? A foreign field being everything from another country (missionaries do that) to your next door unsaved neighbor. To do otherwise is a sin!
  
  CLOSER

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• So are we one of the nine or like the one who returned to thank God? Are we uncleansed of our sins or cleansed?
  
  
• God is glad you are reading this now.
  
  
• So the question is: Did we trade in our leopracy (lost soul) for indifference like the other nine? Or did you get a commission from Jesus Christ to "go thy way"?